Archives For Screencaps

Yo, guys! I just finished a watching of Raj Rachakonda’s 8 A.M. Metro, which stars Saiyami Kher and Gulshan Devaiah, and featured poems by Gulzar, as the film centers on the friendship of two lonesome souls who have a chance ephemeral encounter… and who happened to love reading books and poetry.

Seems like I have been in a movie positive mood lately, so it floored me.

For the last few months, though, I’ve been thinking about how Sai Pallavi and Saiyami Kher, since I saw the trailer for this film, both strongly reminded me of my Tabu-movie journey.

I had seen Sai Pallavi’s films since 2015’s Premam and 2017’s Fidaa, but she really just floored me with Shyam Singha Roy, which I wouldn’t have really loved without her part of the story. Then came Gargi, last year’s Amaran and then the promos for Thandel began. Besides the fact that she’s a wonderful dancer, Pallavi’s got one of the most wonderful expressive eyes.

In between, of course, Saiyami Kher made her Hindi debut with Mirzya in 2016, which I enjoyed a lot. It seems like I’m one of the very few people that actually kinda liked that movie. Since then that OST has been a constant on my music-playing habits. Then came Anurag Kashyap’s Choked and ran into her on Wild Dog. In between films, Kher had focused at lot of her output on long-form shows, so I was so thrilled to see her doing 8 A.M. Metro, and doing well with Agni and Ghoomer, which put her together in a project with Shabana Azmi, who is a sorta x-degree aunt of sorts. lol

Wild things happened at this year’s Spring Gala. Faye Wong awoke from her hibernation for a performance of What the World Gifted Me (世界赠予我的), which CCTV only has in this pre-recorded video presentation. [Edit: CCTV did eventually post the clip.]

Ni Ni showed up in this segment on Wuxi Scenery and National Feelings (无锡景 家国情), showcasing Jiangsu as a province. Ni Ni, and I suppose everyone involved in the segment, were born in Nanjing or other Jiangsu province cities.

However, most shocking and most improved was the unexpected collaboration between Chinese vocalist Zhou Shen (周深), Peruvian opera singer Juan Diego Flores and Peruvian multi-instrumentalist Lucho Quequezana for a remix of Lan Hua Hua (兰花花) and the lyric version of El Condor Pasa for The Condor and the Orchid Flower (山鹰和兰花花).

Many would remember Zhou Shen breaking through pop culture in the 2014 season of The Voice of China (中國好聲音), which led to different hits and numerous inclusions in soundtracks like his first ever Big Fish (大鱼) for the Big Fish & Begonia (大鱼海棠) animated film, which is one of my favorite Chinese animation projects.

I forgot to post this a while back, but this is a total feeling when you’re listening to music and the song comes up.

If twenty years ago you had told me that Crayon Shin-chan was gonna have a smoother transition from 2D to 3D than Studio Ghibli, I would’ve asked you what you were smoking. Yet here we are. lol

The plot for Shin Jigen! Crayon Shin-chan the Movie wasn’t even all that bad, and gets quite meaningful by the end! What a wild world we live in.

Not gonna lie and say I haven’t been obsessing over the trailer for Crew since it dropped, and looking at the clips for Ghagra [1] and kinda giddy at the cover remix of Choli Ke Peeche [1].

I even finally re-watched Idhi Sangathi (with synced subs!) because of it.

Tabu finding riches in highly unusual places!

My only grip with the film, currently, is that my suspense of disbelief is dropped when I see them carrying kilos of gold. Autistic.

Other than that, I’m a super fan of potty-mouthed Tabu (I hope the announcement that theatrical was edited only means we get the potty-mouthed version on Netflix), and I want someone to ask them how much of the funny bits were ad-lib and improv, because that scene where they tell Kriti to sell her assets and the reaction to it was hilarious.

Buying physical media has been a chore lately, you gotta keep an eye out so you make sure you don’t miss your delivery because, for some reason, people cannot just leave your package any longer.

Plus, distributors are doing physical media less and less. The whole of the Indian Cinema industry has decided to phase out physical media in favor of going all in on OTT and VOD. Even enormous hits like RRR are left with no physical release, even in the West. Even Disney is letting Sony handle its physical media, which seems like the end of an era. Then there’s the whole thing about editing and disappearing media from libraries.

So these are some of the most recent -and not so recent- films that have been added to the physical library. I wish I had more disposable income because there are a bunch of titles (and upgrades) that had been added to the wishlist.

These on top of some Bluray upgrades like Sion Sono’s Love Exposure, Kalatozov’s The Cranes Are Flying, brand new Criterion’s for Los Otros and Laberinto del Fauno. Some random BR UK release for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

Also, this post makes it so that this year is the most I’ve blogged since 2020. I’m coming for you 2019. Four posts in Feb’24 is the most continuous blogging since Aug’18.

Isabella Leong has been on and off since she made her official film comeback back in 2015 with Murmur of the Hearts, which is an amazing film. Se also had small roles or almost cameos on 12 Golden Ducks that same year, and got back together with Pang Ho-Cheung for a small role in Missbehavior in 2019.

From her recent interview on A Date with Luyu (鲁豫有约), you can tell that she enjoyed or had fond memories of her debut film Isabella, which Pang directed almost 20 years ago— which also amazes Leong when she realizes how fast/much time has passed. I was also amazed at how she remembered the tracking of the shot, all the more amusing when both clips were put together for contrast.

In 2020, she appeared on Ann Hui’s Love After Love, which was available to watch on MUBI in some territories, and might be available on places like Netflix or Prime, depending on your territory. Now, she’s part of the most recent Dante Lam HK film starring William Chan and Nick Cheung, titled Bursting Point (爆裂點) [Trailer], which I’ve mostly heard positive things about.

Since her teenaged (!!!) sons already give her enough time to move about life, she’s been a lot more active at events and, if you follow her on Instagram, photoshoots. Which finally gets me the reason I was writing this post- she’s the first cover of 2024 for the Condé Nast Traveler China edition, which is a luxury travel magazine based in New York.

I checked their website to see who was the photographer of the shoot, but it looks like they haven’t updated that since their May 2023 issue was published (relatable). Editorial director Shawn Ong only mentions their collaboration with Eastern & Oriental Express Southeast Asia in prep for the launch of their luxury train in two different seasonal routes. The train interiors look (and photograph) amazing. They’re elegant, colorful and textured without looking overwhelming [1][2][3].

However, this is not a travel blog. I took these bad screencaps of some of my favorite shots.

Director Ong’s post features many more pictures, in case anyone’s interested. My favorite is this out of focus one. lol

… is Amy.

I asked the collective conscious who the biggest Yu Aoi fan was, and it pulled this up.

I’ll take it.

Amy is the biggest Yu Aoi fan.

It took a while, but

Happy 1000th fan!

If you aren’t following the list yet, you might discover a gem or two!

My only Letterboxd anticipated message came in the other day, but I took a little bit longer to post because the better side of my OCD got to me.

But here it is!

I went on a Stephen Chow binge, and got to watch a bunch of Hrishikesh Mukherjee films for MUBI. Not to be the Debbie Downer of the terrible 2020, but I hope 2021 picks up. This is the first time in my movie-watching history that I only have one single 4-star rating in my Year Films Ranked list. Two titles if you consider Marona’s Fantastic Tale.

This 2021, I have decided to shut off social media and restart blogging once again. It doesn’t matter if it’s into a blackhole of information. I’ve started with this Spanish translation of a review for Zoya Akhtar’s Dil Dhadakne Do, since the film is in rotation at the Indian entertainment channel ZeeMundo. We also have a proper Spanish title for Haider (!).